Liver cancer is the fifth most common cancer worldwide and the third most common cause of cancer-related death. Llovet et al., 2003, “Hepatocellular carcinoma,” Lancet 362:1907-17. The most common form of liver cancer is hepatocellular carcinoma, also known as HCC, and often develops in the context of other underlying liver damage, typically hepatitis or cirrhosis. Thorgeirsson et al., 2002, “Molecular pathogenesis of human hepatocellular carcinoma,” Nature Genetics 31:339-346. Other, less common, forms of liver cancer include hepatoblastoma and cholangiocarcinoma.
Standard treatment for liver cancer is surgical resection, whenever possible, and chemotherapy, chemoembolisation, or radiation therapy where surgery is not an option. Surgery is not always an option due to tumor size or location, advanced cirrhosis, and even with surgery, tumor recurrence/relapse complicates 70% of cases at 5 years post-resection. See Llovet et al., supra. Chemotherapeutic treatments also appear to have reduced efficacy in liver cancer, possibly due to increased ability of liver cancer cells to efflux chemotherapeutic agents. Thus, there is a significant and urgent need for more effective treatments of liver cancer.